It is currently the practice with various brass articles such as lamps, trivets, faucets, door knobs, door handles, door escutcheons and the like to first buff and polish the surface of the article to a high gloss and to then apply a protective organic coating, such as one comprised of acrylics, urethanes, epoxies, and the like, onto this polished surface. This system has the drawback that the requisite buffing and polishing operation, particularly if the article is of a complex shape, is labor intensive. Also, the known organic coatings are not as durable as desired and wear off.
These deficiencies are remedied by a coating containing a nickel basecoat and a non-precious refractory metal compound such as zirconium nitride, titanium nitride and zirconium-titanium alloy nitride top coat. However, it has been discovered that when titanium is present in the coating, for example as titanium nitride or zirconium-titanium alloy nitride, in corrosive environments the coating may experience galvanic corrosion. This galvanic corrosion renders the coating virtually useless. It has been surprisingly discovered that the presence of a layer comprised of zirconium compound, such as zirconium nitride, or a zirconium alloy compound over the layers containing the titanium compound or titanium alloy compound significantly reduces or eliminates galvanic corrosion.